Free SHS: NPP “stealing” NDC’s belief system – Boakye Gyan

Spokesperson for the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) regime, Major Boakye Gyan (rtd) says the opposition New Patriotic Party’s free Senior High School promise amounts to thievery of the governing National Democratic Congress’ ideological belief system.

Gyan argued that a conservative party like the NPP is only seeking to “steal” the belief system of the leftist NDC and by so doing, hoodwink Ghanaians into voting for them.

There are recriminations between the two parties about ownership of the free SHS idea.

NPP’s 2012 flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo trumpeted the idea in the lead up to the last elections.

Now President John Mahama and the NDC say they will start implementing the policy from the 2015/2016 academic year.

Despite accusations of policy theft by the NPP against the president, Boakye Gyan says the NPP rather sought to steal the belief system of the NDC.

“It’s an idea which has to be pursued by a belief system. If you don’t believe in it, you’re gonna mess it up…when people come and convince us, steal other parties belief systems because they thing it is popular, to win elections, I think there’s an element of dishonesty there that we should discourage…It’s a trick”, Boakye Gyan told Moro Awudu on the XYZ Breakfast Show on Tuesday March 4, 2014.

He said the NPP is being opportunistic in the sense that “they think that using fee-free [education] is likely to put them in office. Of course Ghanaians saw through it and never gave them the chance to do it and that’s why another level of responsibility of the President said ‘ok you stole my thing, I’m repossessing it and I’m implementing it’”.